title: Inhalation incidents and respiratory health: results from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inhalation incidents are an important cause of acute respiratory symptoms, but little is known about how these incidents affect chronic respiratory health.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed reported inhalation incidents among 3,763 European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) participants with and without cough, phlegm, asthma, wheezing or bronchial hyperresponsiveness. We then examined whether inhalation incidents during the 9-year ECRHS follow-up period were associated with a new onset of any of these respiratory outcomes among 2,809 participants who were free of all five outcomes at the time of the baseline ECRHS survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Inhalation incidents were reported by 5% of participants, with higher percentages reported among individuals with asthma-related outcomes at the time of the baseline survey. Among participants without symptoms at baseline, our analyses generated non-statistically significant elevated estimates of the risk of cough, phlegm, asthma and wheezing and a non-statistically significant inverse estimate of the risk of bronchial hyperresponsiveness among participants who reported an inhalation incident compared to those without such an event reported.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings provide limited evidence of an association between inhalation incidents and asthma-related symptoms. These data could be affected by differences in the reporting of inhalation incidents according to symptom status at the time of the baseline survey; they should thus be interpreted with caution.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, Barcelona, Spain. mmirabelli@creal.cat
authors.forename: Maria C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Mirabelli
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olivieri
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kromhout
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Norbäck
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Radon
authors.forename: Kjell
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Torén
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Sprundel
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Villani
authors.forename: Jan-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Zock
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology; D016535:Bronchial Hyperreactivity / Q000453:epidemiology; D003371:Cough / Q000453:epidemiology; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020545:Respiratory Mucosa; D012135:Respiratory Sounds; D055815:Young Adult